A classic Arts and Crafts garden in New Jersey, long forgotten and overgrown, is restored to brilliant new life

Terrace View

Terrace View

When Marco Polo Stufano first set eyes on Greenwood Gardens in Short Hills, New Jersey, he was bowled over by what he saw. "My first impression was the grand scale of it," recalls Stufano, the legendary gardener behind New York's jewel-box Wave Hill for 35 years. In 2002 Stufano was asked to take a look at Greenwood by the Garden Conservancy, which helps to save exceptional American gardens and lends its expertise to those projects. "At the back of the house, there was a view to a garden and pool, and formal boxwood hedges, and in the other direction, there were a cascade and follies," says Stufano. "The bones of the garden made it possible to see the potential for a horticultural showplace within all its formality."

The tiered terraces of Greenwood Gardens in Short Hills, New Jersey, originally designed by William Whetten Renwick, are lined with American boxwood and accented with golden spirea; the antique figurines are two of a quartet representing the four seasons. The restored gardens open to the public this month.

Terrace Bench

Terrace Bench

Although Greenwood was beyond disheveled, Stufano knew that he was looking at something special. Landscapes of this scale are the stuff garden tomes are made of, but there was no mention of Greenwood in the histories of American garden design. That's because its previous owners-the real estate mogul Joseph P. Day, followed by Peter and Adelaide Frick Blanchard-were notoriously private, and the residence was imbued with a do-not-trespass philosophy.

But in 2000, following his father's wishes, Peter Blanchard III and his wife, Sofia, established Greenwood Gardens as a nonprofit organization and reached out to the Garden Conservancy to lead the way. In addition to restoring the garden's geometry, views, textures, and hardscaping, the board charged the garden's horticulture director, Louis Bauer, with introducing a new level of interesting and varied plantings to the site, which had already been cultivated in different styles by the previous owners. With the first phase of work now complete, the garden is scheduled to open to the public on April 27.